Pleasant Valley War

...Yet the Pleasant Valley War history is shrouded in mystery — how did this family feud start? Was it really sheep herders against cattlemen? Or was it simply greed?  The war divided up the loyalty of ranchers that had homesteads from Tonto Basin, to Payson, up through Christopher Creek, along the Rim through Pleasant Valley and out to Holbrook — the Tonto Basin. Ironically enough, Tom Graham originally moved to Pleasant Valley at the invitation of Ed Tewksbury. The two families started off as friends and allies, until John Stinson decided to run his 1,000 head of cattle in Pleasant Valley. Stinson had been paid in cattle for some property and other than that, really wasn’t a rancher. So he left his place to his overseer, John Gilliland. “He’d (Stinson) probably seen the place from the Rim where he used to ride,” said Murdock. Well, the little ranchers resented the appearance of the big ranchers, said Murdock, so the Grahams and Tewksburys joined forces to rustle Stinson’s cattle. “It was called throwing a long rope,” said Murdock. Stinson soon figured out he was losing cattle, while the Graham and Tewksbury herds increased. But then the Tewksburys decided to see if they could form a partnership with Stinson, but he rebuffed their efforts, according to Don Diedera’s “A Little War of Our Own.” Stinson reportedly could not get past the fact the Tewksburys were half Native American. In her book, “Women of the Pleasant Valley War,” Jane Peace Pyle suggested that race had a lot to do with why the two families broke up. “The Tewksburys were half Hupa Indian from the Eel River Valley of Northern California. Their skin was a shade darker, especially Ed Tewksbury’s ... By 1886, anyone entering the valley was told he had to join forces with the Grahams against the damn blacks, or injuns (the Graham-Hashknife faction name for the Tewksburys) or leave the country.” Pyle said a lot of folks in Rim Country had a bit of Cherokee or other tribes in their blood, so they threw in with the Tewksburys. At some point, Stinson’s manager John Gilliland ended up in a confrontation with the Tewksburys, which ended in an exchange of shots that wounded Gilliland’s young nephew. A court case ensued in Prescott. Even then, the Grahams supported the Tewksburys. But the alliance was doomed — thanks to Stinson’s intervention. Murdock said Stinson soon approached the Grahams to offer a contract with the brothers to collect information to put the Tewksburys away for cattle rustling. The Grahams promptly filed the contract in the territory court in Prescott. The Grahams also filed for ownership of a brand they had until then shared with the Tewksburys — effectively stealing most of their one-time allies’ cattle...more